The Serbian Football Association has angrily denied that their fans were guilty of aiming racist abuse at the England Under-21 team, and condemned Danny Rose's behaviour as "inappropriate, unsportsmanlike and vulgar".

However, the Serbian FA statement, which they translated into English, denies that their fans were guilty of "any occurrences of racism", and said the controversy was isolated to the final minute of the match.

"The FA of Serbia absolutely refuses [sic] and denies that there were any occurrences of racism before and during the match at the stadium in Krusevac.

"Making connection between the seen incident – a fight between members of the two teams – and racism has absolutely no ground and we consider it to be a total malevolence.

"Unfortunately, after the fourth minute of the additional time and the victory goal scored by the guest team, unpleasant scenes were seen on the pitch.

"And while most of the English team players celebrated the score, their player number three, Danny Rose, behaved in [an] inappropriate, unsportsmanlike and vulgar manner towards the supporters on the stands at the stadium in Krusevac, and for that he was shown a red card."

The statement maintained that the rest of the game, until the final minute, had been without incident, despite Rose reporting he had twice been hit by stones thrown from the stands.

"During each and every minute of the match, until the last one, a sport[ing] atmosphere, respecting fair-play [prevailed] …"

There was an apology, however, for the way Serbia players and staff confronted members of the England party.

"Football Association of Serbia apologises to the guests from England and the overall football community because of the unsportsmanlike behaviour of a part of the technical staff and players of the Serbian U-21 team.

"By this we inform the overall public that we will, as a matter of urgency, start an internal disciplinary procedure and punish the culprits after reviewing all the reports. It will be done whether a possible disciplinary procedure by the responsible Uefa bodies will be started or not.

"Furthermore, we will not either accept the fact that our players and members of the technical staff were provoked by the gesture of the English player Rose, since violence has no place at sports events. To be honest, we expect the same investigation from the English FA."

Uefa is expected to start disciplinary proceedings against Serbia on Wednesday, with the governing body coming under increasing pressure to ban the country from international competition.